Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Why Do You Do What You Do? | New Testament | 1 Thessalonians 5

Episode Date: May 31, 2023

What motivates you to keep going? What is the point of your life? Does it matter? You might be motivated by the wrong things. In today's episode, Jensen looks at 1 Thessalonians 5 to discover the power of confidence in Jesus. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Thessalonians 5

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. Why do you do what you do? What motivates you to keep going? In my own life, the answer to this question has been incredibly important. I remember my senior year of high school. I faced a season of deep sadness. I found myself lonely, separated from community, isolated, and constantly trapped by the anxiety, fear, and worry that took over my thoughts. The one question that constantly went through my head was, what's the point? Why does any of this matter? In the cloudiness of that season, I couldn't answer that question. And when I couldn't answer that question, I slipped further away from community, stopped going to church, stopped trying in school, and withdrew further into my own disheartened

world. Since then, every time I face seasons like that one, It's because I've lost sight of the answer to this question. And it usually means I've been relying on the wrong answer to fuel my desire to live, to wake up every day, to accomplish tasks, and to keep going. You see, the thing that pulled me out of that hard time was a coach who stepped in and helped me answer that question. She first texted me a verse of scripture out of the blue. Galatians 6.9,

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will, reap a harvest if we do not give up. It was a simple verse, a random text, but it reminded me of the truth that I knew. Do not give up doing good. Do not give up living faithfully because there is something greater waiting for you. There is something bigger than you going on. And of course, it took more than one texted verse to walk out of that season. But it was that verse, that small reminder of the answer to the question that motivated me to get up and begin to seek help and a way out. You see, the truth in that verse is the same truth that we find within the final chapter of First Thessalonians. Paul is wrapping up his final thoughts to the church,

and he ends the book with a list of final instructions. Verse 12. Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you, hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another. And we urge you brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive. Encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else. Rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances.

For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt, but test them all. Hold on to what is good. Reject every kind of evil. Now, this list of instructions can feel like a lot. It can feel overwhelming. That's a lot of things to keep straight, a lot of things to do, a lot of things that are hard. Respect your leaders, be hard workers, live in peace, don't be disruptive, encourage others, seek the good of everyone, rejoice always, pray continually, always have faith. Take the time to test prophecies and only accept what is good and reject every kind of evil. Hearing this list can leave you exhausted, maybe even asking the

question, why? Why do these things? What's the point? Well, we have to zoom out and take chapter five as a whole in order to answer this question. You see, right before Paul leaves the Thessalonians with these final instructions, he reminds them of the confident hope they have in Jesus. Verse 1. Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates, we do not need to write you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying peace and safety, destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman and they will not escape. But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness.

so that this day should not surprise you like a thief. You were all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up just as in fact you are doing. Therefore, that's an incredibly important word in these 11

verses, and I don't want us to miss it. You see, Paul begins this chapter reminding the people that the day of the Lord is coming. Christ will return. He will raise all believers from the dead and he will give them new life, new bodies. He will live together with them in his perfectly restored kingdom here on earth. When we look forward to the future, that is what we should see. We belong to the light. We are people of the day. We will live again with Christ in his kingdom for all eternity. He encourages them not to be afraid, not to worry about when this will happen or wonder what is happening to their brothers and sisters who have passed away, but to have confident hope in a salvation that Jesus secured for them through his life, death, and resurrection. Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up just as in fact you are doing.

And verse 11 goes directly into the verses we read previously. Paul's final instructions follow this same therefore. So why do we do what we do? Why are we faithful? Where does our motivation come from? Well, it comes from our confident hope and the promise of one day living in the kingdom of God alongside Jesus, our king. We endure. We rejoice. We are thankful. We pray. We build one another up. We seek each other's good. We work to advance the kingdom of God in every area of our lives because we are confident that one day Jesus is returning. One day he will come to establish his kingdom here on earth and bring his children, you and me, into glory with him.

That truth is the foundation for everything we do. It is the foundation for life. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says this. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. You see, if this isn't true, if what Paul tells the Thessalonians is to come is not real, if Christ didn't rise from the dead, then all is lost. We are stuck in sin. We are lost in death, we have no hope, and we are to be pitied. Without the truth of the gospel, without the

confident hope of a future harvest, a future life with Christ and inheritance, without all that, we live in darkness. Every single time in my life that I have tried to answer the question, why do I do what I do? In any other way, I find myself slipping into that same darkness and purposelessness that took over my life in high school. When I am motivated by the approval of others, I am devastated when someone dislikes me or speaks out against me. When I am motivated by excellence and success, I fall apart when I fail. When I'm motivated by love and affection from friends, I feel unworthy in seasons of loneliness and busyness. When I am motivated by anything other than my confident hope and my future that has been secured by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ,

I eventually find myself off course, feeling disappointed, and at worst, unsure of what's the point of it all? Why keep going? And yet, in his faithfulness, I have seen Jesus pull me back to this truth again and again. disappointed by the hopelessness of all the other things I tried to build my life on, Jesus is faithful. In verse 23 and 24, Paul reminds his readers of this very truth. May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

He is faithful to do it. The God of peace will sanctify you, will keep you blameless, will uphold you until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. When the motivations of the world disappoint you, when your life feels purposeless and off course, when the weight of the world threatens to overcome you, when you don't know why you keep going anymore, remember, that the God who created the universe is at work in your life. He has entrusted you with His Holy Spirit. He will strengthen you. He will be faithful to his promises. He has already made a way for you to have new life in Christ.

You and I will live alongside Jesus in His kingdom. Not even death can overcome that promise. May we build our lives on that confident hope. May we live each day, building God's kingdom, loving, rejoicing, sacrificing, and praying because we are confident that none of it, none of it is in vain, and all of it is bringing this world closer to the day when it will be fully redeemed. That is our hope. That is our foundation. That is why we live and live faithfully by the power of Jesus Christ. Before you forget, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talks

newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help encourage you in the middle of the work week and bring you deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.